Star Trek Franklin Masses
by PMisik
Summary: A new ship and new crew embark on an unknown entity that threatens the Alpha Quadrant. [PLEASE REVIEW]
1. Chapter 1

Lt. Commander Asprey walked through the main corridor to the bridge. It was his first time setting foot on the USS Franklin and that made him a little more than nervous. Throughout his time in Starfleet, he had always wondered if his commission would be spent on a vessel like this, and when he finally boarder her, he knew that this was going to be a wild ride. He passed sickbay, and greeted Doctor Spires. As he moved along the ship, the butterflies grew in stomach. He stopped at the turbolift and took a deep breath. The doors hissed open and he walked inside. There, he stood next to Commander Dralk, the first Klingon to be given the position as First Officer.

"State your destination," Commander Dralk said.

"Bridge, sir," Asprey murmured.

Dralk snarled and enjoyed the silence from within the turbolift. Dralk wasn't one for conversation; however he knew that Starfleet protocol stated otherwise. "Are you my new Conn officer?"

Asprey didn't know what to say. He never tried to carry on a conversation with a Klingon. This was going to be a new experience. "I'm your new science officer sir."

Dralk looked him over. Asprey was a little human with minimal muscle structure. Not a very prominent warrior in his book. He didn't like the little man from the time that he laid eyes on him, but Captain Rishond had very good judgment when it came to these matters. Dralk let out a disapproving exhale and the lift stopped.

Asprey's stomach finally settled as they took the bridge. He felt the air relax as they stepped out on to the bridge. It buzzed with activity. Asprey walked over to his science station and took his seat. He like the feel of the Galaxy Class console and that made him even more comfortable. He tapped a few times on the console and ran it through its diagnostics. Standard Starfleet protocol was to make sure that the console you sit at is running at optimal speed.

He looked over the rest of the crew at this point. Lt. Erin Stun sat next to him at the Conn. Asprey remembered her picture from the net. She won the holoball tournament each year that she was the academy. Behind them at the security station was Lt. Habas, an Andorian with an attitude. To Asprey, Habas was Dralk's pick for that position. Over at the engineering console was Lt. Commander Basalik, an Ullian that made Asprey a little more than nervous. It was something about having a telepath on board that wasn't the least bit comforting. Finally, there was Lt. Richard Fox working the Communications of the ship. Lt. Fox had a very bad reputation for disobedience in Starfleet. He was looking for a fresh start with the Franklin.

Over in the ready room, Captain Eric Rishond sat at his desk finalizing a few orders. He moved from behind his desk and approached the main door. He closed his eyes and tugged at his uniform to make sure that everything was straight. He didn't want to disappoint the new crew. As the door slid open, the announcement of "Captain on the bridge" echoed out. He smiled and waved everyone back to work. He had sort of a strut in his step as he made his way to the big chair. As he sat down, he looked at this first officer and asked, "How is the bridge number one?"

Dralk let out a disappointing sound. "Everything is as it should be. This ship is both magnificent and disgusting. Why do you insist on having me as your first officer?"

Rishond didn't want that question to come up at this point and time, however it had. He knew that Dralk wouldn't be happy if there was just silence for an answer, so he rebutted, "Because in the heat of battle, you are the best that there is. You have been a true warrior in times that most would have crumbled. That's what I need if we encounter the Borg or the Romulans."

"Qapla'!" Dralk responded in pride.

Captain Rishond smiled as he acknowledged the first officer. He motioned towards Lt. Habas, "Open a channel to DS9."

Habas tapped the console and replied, "Channel open."

Rishond bit his top lip. He didn't like the fact that the Andorian lacked certain respect. "Lt. Stun, request clearance and take us out."

"Aye sir," Stun said. "We are cleared and heading out."

Rishond watched his crew with amazement. They began to flow like a well oiled machine. He didn't know what the future had in store for him, but he did know that it was going to be one hell of a ride.


	2. Chapter 2

"Captain's log. Stardate 44424.2. We've been out on patrol of the Alpha Quadrant for nearly a month now and it seems that all is quiet. Commander Dralk has become increasingly aggravated with the lack of action."

Captain Rishond walked out of his office and proceeded to the bridge. He smiled as he strolled past the Science console and took his seat. "Report," he ordered.

Dralk drew a look of disgust. "All is quiet Captain, too quiet."

"Sir," Asprey said from the console, "we're picking up an unidentified signature on long range sensors. It doesn't appear to be a vessel, but I would exercise caution."

"Agreed," he said to Asprey, "red alert. Shields up."

Interest peaked in the Klingon sitting to the captain's right. Although it wasn't an impending battle, the thought of learning all there is to your enemies weaknesses appealed to Dralk. He drew a little closer to edge of his seat and exhaled.

"Commander, is there something that you would like to share?"

"With my time on the K'Plar, we've seen something similar to this, however we couldn't attack it. It posed no threat to the empire, so we thought it best to leave it alone," he finished with a very intent look. "Lieutenant Fox, magnify the picture a little. I want to get a good look at this anomaly."

"Aye sir," Fox stated. He tapped a few times on the command bar and the image drew in tighter. It looked like a piece of dead debris floating in space. There wasn't much movement to the object except for its dead drift in to space. Fox watched as it drew a little light from a passing asteroid and then its mass grew. Fox compensated for the increase in size.

Rishond drew in more puzzlement by what he just witnessed. "What are you thinking Asprey?"

Asprey ran the scans on the object several more times. He tried to break down the object in to its lowest common denominator; however he couldn't penetrate the outer shell. "It's unknown at this time sir. I couldn't break it down. There's got to be something driving this thing."

Rishond let the idea roll around in his head for a moment, and decided that the best thing was to back away and let this thing pass. "Lt. Stun, back us away to 100,000 kilometers."

"Aye sir," she said. She worked her console and let the object in front of her reduce in size. The ship rumbled for a moment and then came to a stop.

"Damage report," Rishond said. That last bump shouldn't have been there.

"Sir," Basalik started, "there's no damage." A warning fired off on his console. "Wait a moment. We've lost 6 of our hull integrity on the left nacelle. It's like something just ingested part of the ship. We're rebuilding the integrity now."

Asprey couldn't believe his eyes. His sensors now lit up with thirty of the little masses around the ship. He isolated almost all of them; however he could almost feel more of them. "Sir, we have a problem."

Candor is what Rishond needed at this moment to get his orders straight, however he wasn't in a guessing mood. "Please enlighten us Commander," Rishond said with a hint of aggravation.

"There's about thirty of them floating around us. They appear to have the ability to slip through our shields and they feed on large floating masses. If we stay here any longer, they may start to rip the ship apart at the seams." Asprey hated being the bearer of bad news, but there was something with taking the Chief Science Officer's job that would entail this. It was more than a downside for the young officer.

"Lieutenant Stun, back us out very slowly. Commander Asprey, ensure that Stun has the location and tracking information on these masses. I want her to maneuver us right past them."

"Aye sir, she has everything that she needs."

Stun concentrated on both the location of the masses and the course that she plotted. She felt the ship slide its way through the field and then came to a stop 2,000,000 kilometers away from the last known mass. "All stopped sir."

Rishond waited for a moment. He played a hunch in his mind that these things would come after them. He hoped that they wouldn't, but deep down he knew better. He fought back the idea of something that he couldn't attack coming after them, but when he saw the last one turn and head its way at 1/2 impulse, he knew that it was too late.

"Lt, plot a course for the Ikalian Asteroid belt."

Stun turned in her seat. "Sir?"

"It's in the databank. Trust me. Captain Picard found it and now we need to use it. Warp 6."

Stun turned back to her console and brought up the route. With the coordinates laid in, she fired off the engines. The stars outside turned in to fine white streaks on the view screen.

Asprey looked at the science console in amazement. He witnessed the masses following at the same trajectory. Scanning for any signs of an energy signature, he found that they did emit a small amount of it. There was just something that didn't sit well with him. The longer that the Franklin moved, the smaller the masses became. "Captain," Asprey started.

"Please tell me that you have some good news Commander," Rishond said as he watched the view port.

Asprey cleared his throat. He didn't want to jump over the head of the captain, but he didn't want to sound like he was disrespecting him either. "If we keep our current course and head in to dead space, then we can ultimately destroy these creatures. They need to feed every couple of minutes, or they burn themselves out."

Dralk drew a thin smile. He found a weakness in the enemy that has long endangered the Klingon Empire for so long. His thin smile turned to a guttural growl as he witnessed the first being's light twinkle then fade. "Captain Rishond, what would be the consequences for firing on the being? They are in a weakened state."

Rishond pondered the question for a moment and then turned to his science officer. "Any ideas Commander?"

Asprey ran several calculations in his mind and said, "No sir. I don't know what effect, if any, that a phaser blast would have on the beings. I could ultimately cause it to grow, or it could deflect it off. If I had more data, then I could make a very intelligent decision. But for now, all I can say is I don't know."

Captain Rishond turned to Lt. Habas and said, "Ready the aft phaser banks and target the lead being. Fire on my mark."

Lt. Habas growled under his breath and did as he was ordered. "Phasers are ready," he said. He watched the read out on the console and when it achieved a perfect lock, he said, "We have a lock. Awaiting your order."

Thoughts of the two variables that could come of this flashed in the captain's mind. Ultimately, the ship and her crew was his number one priority. "Fire," he ordered.

The aft phaser banks burst to life. The golden ray flowed from the emitters and applied a direct hit to the being. It twinkled for a moment. "Direct hit," Habas called from the security station.

Suddenly, Asprey's console beeped. He tapped a few keys and took a gasp. "Captain," he called out.

"Report!" Rishond said.

"We have a problem sir," Asprey started, "the beings are merging on the one that we hit with the phaser fire." He tried to keep his voice as even as possible. Fear and doubt crept in to the back of his mind.


	3. Chapter 3

"Captain's log supplemental. We have encountered a being that was thought to be a nemesis to the Klingon empire. Commander Dralk has informed me of one encounter with these beings. The outcome was one of despair. We have escaped them for the time being, however we will converse over a course of action. I feel that we don't need to have these beings flowing through space without a proper course of action of dealing with them."

The senior officers sit in the briefing room as Captain Rishond stood outside getting his thoughts together. The doors swished open as he exhaled. His first thought was to Asprey. He hoped that he had an answer for this current problem. "Have a seat everyone."

"Captain, I did some deep level scans of the beings and we may have a weakness."

"We're listening," Dralk growled out from the table.

"While they pursued us at high warp, we were able to lower their energy signature. But, when we fired on the one, we only recharged it," Asprey continued. He found that it was hard not to keep excited from the secret that he buried deep down inside. He would only give up the information with the right question.

Rishond had experienced this, and the replay of the information didn't please him in the least. "We know all of this," he stated. "Do we have a way to stop them?"

Asprey smiled to himself. That was the question that he was looking for. "If I could have Lieutenant Commander Basalik help me with this explanation."

Basalik walked up to the briefing board and touched a few keys. "If we take a photon torpedo and invert the matter antimatter core, we should be able to create a small black hole and draw the beings in to. This should ultimately cause them to burn out."

Captain Rishond thought for a moment. "What's plan B?"

Basalik thought for a moment. He hoped that this question wouldn't come to light, however in the back of his mind, he expected it to. "We would have to outrun them. But with our current resources, we wouldn't be able to run for long. The warp core took an unexpected hit when the being began to devour our hull integrity grid. I've had crews working on it daily, but there just isn't enough antimatter to stabilize the core. We've probably got 3 or 4 hours at maximum warp left. I hoped that it would be more, but until we can get to a space port for fresh supplies, then we're sunk."

Rishond weighed the options in his mind. He saw that running from the beings would ultimately lead to their demise; however he didn't have those kinds of resources. He hoped that there was a different way. "Commander Dralk, what's your input on this situation?"

Always the mindful militant, Dralk crossed his arms over his broad chest. "We shall fight the enemy. If what the Commander says it true, then we won't have a problem. What concerns me is how do we lure these beings in to the trap?"

Asprey fielded the question. He pointed to the projected path on the holowall. "It's going to take some pretty good piloting, but we can maneuver through them and draw towards this location," he pointed to a spot on the map that was flashing red, "then fire the torpedo, we can minimize the affected region. The hole should be no more than 10 kilometers in size. Once the beings have been drawn inside, then we can fire an overcharged photon torpedo in front of it, closing the small rift and everything will be great."

Captain Rishond raised his hand. "I have a problem with this."

Asprey swallowed the knot in his throat. "Yes sir," he said.

"What is to keep up from being drawn in to this hole? What's to keep the black hole contained in to the 10 kilometer radius? There are an awful lot riding on the fact that we can make this work, however I'm not convinced. Have we scanned the area for another black hole? I would love to use one that already exists."

Commander Basalik stood. He felt the reprehension pouring from Captain Rishond's mind. He didn't need to be invasive to feel that. "Captain, if I may." He took the position at the front of the room. "This is an extremely complicated series of explosions. We can do this in a matter of seconds. Anything longer than the Mixa'hil Theory and then we have grounds for concern."

Rishond raised his eyebrows and his face transformed to that in complete loss. He thought back to the days of quantum physics class and didn't recall anything about Mixa'hil or his theory. "Please J'Dan, educate us as to what the Mixa'hil theory is."

Basalik took a moment to remember his Starfleet training. "The Mixa'hil theory is this. A black hole grows at 1 kilometer per millisecond that it exists. There are several billion black holes opening and closing every second. The difference between that and what we are going to create is that we're controlling the closing of the mass."

"What happens if we don't get it closed," Lt. Stun asked. She thought over it long and hard and couldn't come up with an answer. "We could be drug in to the center of it."

Asprey loved that there was an intelligent question coming from someone in the room. "In theory, yes." He let the murmur in the room subside before he continued. "The probability of that occurring is so small that we won't even discuss it."

"I think that we need to," Rishond said.

Asprey turned to the Captain and said, "Sir, the precision guided torpedoes have been run through several simulations and we've come up with the same thing. This will work, and there's no flaw that we haven't unmasked."

Captain Rishond believed in his crew. There was something about this that just didn't settle well. He turned to Dralk, who already made his decision, and nodded. He hoped that this didn't end badly. "Make it happen."


	4. Chapter 4

The entities flowed through space, following the ion trail left by the Franklin. They sensed the energy that flowed from the large vessel and they wanted more. The continued on until they approached the vessel. The tingle of pure energy sent the first towards the ship.

Shortly behind, the six beings that joined in to one came barreling through space. It had been a long time since it felt the awesome power that this one contained. It hungered for more. There was plenty of mass in front of it and it wanted to take it apart. It wanted to taste every ounce of it as it devoured more and more. It felt its center core grow brighter and brighter. Heat boiled from down deep inside and soon sparked its first flame. More and more, the temperature of its surface grew hotter and hotter. It felt itself slow. It reached out with its inner core and call to the others for help.

The others turned and saw their larger self slow. They bared witness to the amount of energy that it had exhibited to lay claim to the vessel in front of them. Each of them turned and retreated to the larger being. They felt the awesome power of its inner core pull them in to a motion that they didn't know. It was at this point that each of them relaxed and danced around the large one.

The pull of the larger one swung the farthest one away to the hull of the Franklin. There, it drew from the power of the large vessel. The energy from the shields flowed through its small body and was passed down through the orbit and ended up at the large mass. The center mass picked up speed in swinging the smaller masses around so more of them could feed on the vessel. The large mass forced more energy through itself and began to stroll towards the vessel.


	5. Chapter 5

"Damage report!" Rishond screamed from the center chair. He had a front row seat to the event that was transpiring before him, but needed to know what his ship was doing.

"Shields are down to 65," Habas called from the security station.

"We don't have enough power to sustain the shields. Once they fall, the masses will move towards the hull. I see that we have about six minutes to make a call," Basalik said from the science station. His concern was projected throughout the bridge.

"Stun, move us away from the being. Lay in a course 183 mark 3. Three quarter impulse," Captain Rishond called out.

"Aye sir," Stun replied and pushed the coordinates in to the system. The view screen showed the ship spin around and run from the masses.

Asprey watched the sensor readout and saw that the center mass wasn't moving fast enough to lay in pursuit. He signaled to Stun to come to a stop about 350,000 kilometers away from the outer mass.

"Why are we stopping?" Rishond asked.

"We're far enough away from the object," Asprey said. "If we stayed here and ready everything to fire, we will enough time to complete our mission."

Captain Rishond thought about the solution to the problem. "Are you sure that we're going to rip a hole in space that will encompass all of the objects in front of us?"

Numbers flashed through Asprey's mind. He fought with the calculations that came in. He looked up at the view port and saw the center mass had been fully ignited and burned like a star. "We will collapse the center mass."

Basalik spoke first. "We're going to what?"

"Say that again Commander," Rishond ordered.

"If we collapse the center mass, we should be able to draw everything in. I think that it's burning hot enough to match a star or sun. If we hit it with the modified photon torpedo, then we can collapse it and turn that in to the black hole. We'll fire the second torpedo and seal it up."

Basalik ran over the calculations and agreed with Asprey. He nodded over to Captain Rishond and said, "Commander Asprey has a valid point. If we were to send the center star in to collapse, then all of the other masses would soon fall in to it. That would give the crew time to initiate repairs on the ship while the remaining masses are pulled in to the event horizon. Once all of the masses are inside, then we can fire the second volley and be done with this nightmare."

The captain showed a brief moment of apprehension and gave the order. "Ready the first photon torpedo."

Asprey paid close attention to the rotation of the orbiting masses. The timing had to be perfect to pull this off. He also noted the speed in which the star was moving towards them. "Sir, if I may have the honor of giving the command of fire?"

"Habas, on Commander Asprey's mark."

"Aye sir," Habas said with a growl. He didn't like taking orders from the little book worm that was in front of him, but this was a time that everything needed to be perfect. "Torpedo ready."

The rotation of the orbital masses steadied and Asprey called back to the Security officer. "Fire!"

The torpedo launched with a bright red fury. Small tentacles of light reach out from the center as it moved towards the star.

"Impact in seven," Asprey started. "Six," the orbital picked up speed. It missed the projectile by a mile. "Five," the second was even closer. "Four," the planet couldn't catch up. "Three," it was just space and the center mass. "Two," almost there. "Impact," Asprey called out. He watched as the star turned from a magnificent orange to a bright blue. The bright blue core faded in a black emptiness. It seemed like an eternity as the first planet was drug in to the black hole. It was followed by second. Soon, there was only two remaining.

"Ready the second torpedo," Rishond called out.

"Launcher is ready," Habas said.

"Fire on my mark," Rishond said. "Fire," he said.

The second torpedo burned a little brighter than the first, but exploded shortly after was launched. The cloud drifted over to the black hole. The singularity soon disappeared in to space.

"Captain's log Star Date 44425.6. It's been nearly six hours since we've opened and closed the black hole. Our scans have come back several times over that we've effectively closed the hole. We will deploy a transponder noting the events that have gone on here. I hope that our research will return us to this location and we can run further scans in the future."


End file.
